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Monthly Archive: July, 2012

The top whistleblowing website, WikiLeaks, has admitted to penning the recent fake opinion piece attributed to the New York Times. In the article a prominent NYT columnist allegedly defends WikiLeaks and denounces a financial blockade of the press.

On Sunday, an op-ed article signed by NY Times active contributor Bill Keller began to circulate on the Web. The writing style closely resembled that of Keller and the interface of the web page looked like an opinion page of the NY Times. The publication also referenced a number of actual articles by Keller with hyperlinks.

Contrary to the endless lobbying and subsequent defending of the now-dead SOPA and PIPA frameworks, a leaked report shows that earlier this year the RIAA’s Deputy General Counsel admitted that the legislation was “not likely to have been effective tool” for dealing with music piracy. All efforts are now being put behind the “six strikes” plan – but could disconnections for repeat infringers still be on the agenda?

The TROM documentary is trying to present, in a simplistic way, the world in which we, human beings, live. The world discovered so far, not some idea or personal choice. Moreover we tried to present alternative solutions to current problems and took into account the future, which promises to be more than interesting. An informative documentary, perhaps shocking and disturbing to many, depending on how you digest the information.

The documentary is divided into chapters and sub-chapters due to documentary’s excessive length (13 hours). Also all the parts are connected.

The future of humanity depends on whether “too big to fail” sectors of the economy are taken under public control, creating a step-up socialist model, believes Peter Mertens, Belgian politician and author, the head of the Workers’ Party of Belgium.

The root of the ongoing crisis is overcapacity in the production, Mertens believes. He says the policy of creating artificial consumption was a stopgap measure and it has failed.

Europe is at a crossing point, Mertens told RT. The choices are, keep the euro at the expense of renouncing national sovereignties to live in an authoritarian German-led Eurozone, or split up into several conglomerates. Yet there is a third way, when strong mass movements find political translation to go for something like a socialist Europe with public banking and energy systems and true democracy.

Subjects were divided into groups according to their social backgrounds and asked to carry out a series of tasks to test their scruples. The tests focused on traits such as honesty and consideration for others.

It was found that the wealthier the participant, the more likely they were to break the law, make unethical decisions and take valued goods from others.

Late last month, in his drive to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt over Operation Fast and Furious, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) inserted material from a sealed wiretap warrant application into the Congressional Record. Information contained in such applications cannot be released absent a court’s permission, and those who violate the law can be held in contempt. But by placing the information in the Congressional Record – rather than directly releasing it to journalists – Rep. Issa shielded his otherwise illegal conduct behind the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause.

After my organization, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed complaints with the Justice Department and Office of Congressional Ethics, Rep. Issa’s office offered a sadly predictable response. Rather than address the evidence that he violated federal law and House ethics rules, his spokesperson attacked CREW’s credibility, accusing CREW of being complicit in what he termed a government cover-up.

LAST week, another UK banking executive was made to squirm in front of the TV cameras as he was grilled by angry parliamentarians over alleged corruption in his organisation.

Barclays bank was fined $450 million by UK and US authorities for its part in an inter-bank interest-rate fixing operation. Now the bank’s former chief executive Bob Diamond has told a UK Treasury committee that rogue employees operating far outside the bank’s trading and dealing rules were to blame.

“When I read the emails from those traders I got physically ill,” Diamond said of the missives that proved Barclays staff had rigged the rates.